Troops were seeking a Pakistan-based Taliban leader who is responsible for trafficking foreign fighters into southern Afghanistan, officials said, and also is connected to several al-Qaida and Haqqani terrorist network leaders throughout Afghanistan.

Intelligence reports indicated the Taliban leader would be in Afghanistan to help in launching a large-scale attack on security forces in Helmand province. After searching a compound where they believed the Taliban leader might be, the security force detained several suspected insurgents without incident.

In other recent operations throughout Afghanistan:

-- Afghan and coalition forces killed two insurgents Feb. 12 at a traffic-control point in Nimroz province. The insurgents were stopped by security forces and found with a large amount of narcotics. The insurgents attempted to attack the troops with small-arms fire and hand grenades during the search of their vehicle and were killed immediately. The operation resulted in seizure of 820 pounds of heroin, 220 pounds of opium, a hand grenade and an assault rifle.

-- Afghan and coalition forces detained a suspected insurgent and found two weapons caches Feb. 11 in Kandahar province’s Spin Boldak district. The suspect was arrested after security forces found him traveling with 26,400 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer banned by the Afghan government because it can be used to make explosives. A separate security patrol in the district found a vehicle with 29 rocket-propelled grenades, 17 bags of ammonium nitrate, 10 land mines, seven pressure plates, four radio-controlled transmitters and two radios.